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Published: March 26th 2011
After an uneventful night on the train we arrived in Chennai early in the morning. I got a bit of culture shock returning to a big city and seeing the intense poverty and pollution of Chennai. We checked into our hotel and ate our share of some dodgy Indian style Western food we decided to do some exploring of the city. We walked to Chepauk Stadium and collected our cricket tickets then jumped on the train to go to Kapaleeshwarar Temple. The temple was very impressive with a lot of colour and movement going on. We then wandered to San Thome Cathedral, which houses the tomb of St Thomas, one of the twelve apostles. We then walked down to the beach which was apparently hit hard in the 2004 tsunami. With everything going on in Japan, it was very strange to try and picture a tsunami occurring in Chennai. There were a lot of shanty towns down on the beach, which of course would have been washed away and I guess that people didn’t really have any other option but to rebuild their little shanty house back on the beach….
So we walked north towards Vivekanandar Illam (a house), Vivekanandar
Swami had stayed here briefly to teach his philosophy. We were pretty hot and tired at this point in time, so we had a look at the building and then headed back to our hotel for a relaxing evening, in which I overdosed on banana chips.
The next day we headed out to the India v West Indies cricket game. After smuggling in the camera into the ground (I really missed my calling as a shop lifter) we settled in for the game. As you all know India beat the West Indies, which meant that we would be playing them in the quarter finals. We nearly caught a 6 that Yuvraj Singh hit into the crowd, but I’m glad that we didn’t. Funny thing about Indian crowds, they go mental when India does something great, like hit a four or get a wicket, but when things aren’t going their way, the ground is so quiet. They also go mental for Sachin Tendulkar – when he walks onto the ground, walks near the crowd, touches the ball, hits a run….it’s crazy. Half the time I was looking around to see what was going on, only to realise that Tendulkar touched
Brettie eating some yummy watermelon
Freshly cut to avoid water being splashed all over it!the ball and threw it back to the keeper….Anyway it was a good game, glad that India won. Although not glad that we’ll be playing them….We walked home after the game and went to bed.
So the next day we decided to go to the Fort, caught the train and couldn’t find the Fort….how we managed to do this, I have no idea. I blame Brettie, because at least I know that my sense of direction is crap. We later figured out that we were on the wrong side of the tracks. Anyway we ended up walking around George Town and then we headed back for lunch at an Indian chain restaurant which happens to also have a shop in East Ham (London) that we’ve been too. Then we went to the Chennai Government Museum – highlights included one Van Gogh and one Cezanne painting, lots of stuffed animals and very old statues of gods. We then watched Animal Kingdom, dinner and bed.
So we caught a train out of Chennai at about midday the next day. We had spent the morning walking around and on the internet because of the damn 24 hour check out system….Because we
San Thome Cathedral in the background
Monument to tsunami victims in the foreground had checked in at 7.30am, we had to check out at 7.30am otherwise we would have had to pay an extra full days accommodation even if we only stayed an hour….nuts.
So on the train we were for about 9 hours, arrived in Guntakal for one night because of our train connections. Nice dosa for breakfast and then back on the train bound for Hospet. Whilst on the train we got a text from Nezzi saying that she wasn’t able to meet us in Hampi because she was sick, boo hoo. Arrived in Hospet safe and sound.
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